IQ Tests Can Help Fight the College Scam Industry. By Adam Kravatz.
Higher education may be the most damning domestic institution our country must battle against, as student loans crush college-educated workers and colleges seek to undermine traditional Western values by promoting communism, gender and racial “equity,” moral relativism, and other toxic ideas of the Left.
Good news:
There is a simple and overlooked tool that can be used to combat higher education’s influence: allow employers the ability to screen applicants using IQ and other cognitive tests.
The government is permitted to use IQ tests to determine eligibility for the military or for Social Security Disability benefits. Universities are permitted to use cognitive exams for admissions (although this has been falling out of favor for the progressive Left).
But they’re illegal because of disparate impact:
So, why are IQ tests de facto illegal for employers wishing to screen applicants?
While IQ tests are not de jure illegal, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the seminal 1971 case Griggs v. Duke Power Co. that IQ tests lead to an “adverse impact” on certain racial groups because of racial differences in IQ testing results and were therefore discriminatory under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 strengthened these protections. In effect, these such tests are legal only where it can be shown there is a business necessity in achieving a certain score on the test. …
The Griggs case did not bar employers from demanding college degrees, even though there is an “adverse impact” there as well, effectively making colleges into monopolies. This caused college degrees to become legal substitutes for the kind of testing that employers have not been able to conduct since the 1970s. In turn, employers demanded college degrees for jobs that don’t require a college education, workers acquiesced to massive debts in order to show these capabilities, and colleges raised prices due to the high demand of people seeking job credentialing. …
They’re quick and work well:
IQ testing has long been one of the most politically sensitive and fraught issues essentially ignored by the intelligentsia and policymakers despite the fact that cognitive ability tests have been shown to be highly predictive of job performance across the spectrum.
These tests are the most reliable and best studied in all of the social sciences. …
Contrary to popular belief, IQ tests are not culturally biased and largely cannot be gamed by preparation. Compare this to admissions tests used for universities which, while there is undoubtedly a substantial IQ element, have spawned an entire industry of preparation techniques. Families of the elites sometimes pay $200 an hour for experienced SAT and ACT tutors who help their children game the test and achieve higher scores — an advantage far less accessible for lower- and middle-class families.
Income advantage is virtually nonexistent with IQ tests. By permitting employers to screen applicants using IQ tests instead of having to rely on college degrees to achieve the same effect, students from all classes of society will have an equal chance …
What a waste of time:
Having a college degree is a ubiquitous screening requirement among white-collar and even many blue-collar employers. In today’s society, for many jobs, it is not necessarily important that you learned anything while obtaining your degree (most skills are learned on the job) but that you have a piece of paper that shows that you have been through the relevant screening process and are of a sufficient IQ to perform well in the job.
According to Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, 36 percent of college students show “no significant gains in learning” after four years of college. In other words, these students spent significant time and money solely to “earn” a piece of paper. …
College is obviously not an efficient screening mechanism. Why are we sending impressionable young minds to waste four prime years of their lives partying and becoming indoctrinated by leftist academia when there is a much more efficient screening process available?
If naturally bright students are able to demonstrate intelligence through a simple test rather than going to college, the number of students going to college will drop substantially, and elite universities will lose prestige. These drops in demand and degree value should incentivize schools to decrease tuition.
Of course, intelligence may not be the most important factor affecting job performance, but other factors that are arguably more important, such as work ethic or social skills, are difficult to test for and are certainly not attested to by a high GPA from a university in the age of rampant grade inflation. …
The percentage of the U.S. population with a college degree was around six percent in 1950. Today, it is closer to 38 percent. …
Effectively, for the upper and upper-middle classes, childhood has been extended until 22.
Why waste four years on a college degree when all the employer really wants to know is if you’re smart enough, which takes a test you can do in an hour with no preparation?
Well, because some favored identity groups don’t do so well. Chalk up another harm to identity politics.
